The year 2002 was most uncomfortable for Pres. Alyaksandr Lukashenka (who was reelected in September 2001) as a result of his differences with Russian Pres. Vladimir V. Putin. Their disputes centred on the Russia-Belarus Union, the establishment of which had long been a goal of Lukashenka’s.

In June Putin publicly condemned the “Soviet” (i.e., federal) model for the union, pointing out that, because the Belarusian economy was only 3% the size of Russia’s, the two sides could hardly be regarded as equals. Two months later Putin proposed either a unified state or a union formed according to the principles of the European Union. He suggested a timetable for the former option that included a referendum in May 2003, elections to a unified parliament in December 2003, and a presidential election in March 2004. Lukashenka, however, sought an agreement based on the Union State Treaty that he and Russian Pres. Boris Yeltsin had signed in 1999 that would preserve the sovereignty of of both states. The Belarusians also rejected a Russian proposal for a single currency that would have been issued and controlled in Moscow. Putin, however, stood pat.

Internationally, Belarus was still under fire for its continuing repressions of members of the political opposition and for its apparent attempts to evict from Minsk the Advisory and Monitoring Group of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). On July 11 the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Berlin sharply criticized Belarusian policies, calling for the introduction of free and fair elections and an end to Belarus’s international isolation and voicing its concern over alleged assassinations of political opposition members and the funneling of weapons to terrorists.

During the 2001 presidential election campaign, Belarusian Trade Union Federation leader Uladzimir Hancharyk had mounted a credible challenge to Lukashenka, the incumbent. Following an extraordinary trade union congress on Sept. 18–19, 2002, the president brought the federation under government control, changed its name to Trade Union Federation of Belarus, and installed as its new head Leanid Kozyk, formerly the deputy chairman of the presidential administration. In similar fashion Mikhail Myasnikovich, former head of the same administration, was made rector of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences. Belarus’s cycle of public protests and harsh official retribution continued, most notably on April 20, when about 85 people were detained after an opposition rally in central Minsk.

In 2002 the government arbitrarily raised the minimum wage to an average of $100 per month, even while more than 40% of factories were reported to be operating at a loss (the comparable figure in 2001 was 35.6%). Moreover, it was estimated that the number of unemployed would reach 230,000 by 2003 as a result of the laying off of managers, skilled personnel, and schoolteachers in a drive for austerity. Gross domestic product grew by 4.7% in the first half of the year (the target was 7–7.5%), but inflation remained higher than in neighbouring states, and it was feared that it could reach 40% for the year.

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